Interview with Jorge Martin, secretary of the "Hands Off Venezuela" solidarity campaign. The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela is facing its most challenging times. The right-wing opposition, backed by the United States, is engaged in a full-blown regime change campaign, with violent protests occurring daily and resulting in over 50 casualties. The chavista supporters of the government have also taken to the streets in defence of the Bolivarian Revolution, and President Maduro surprised everyone by calling for a Constituent Assembly. Jorge Martín, the secretary of the "Hands Off Venezuela" solidarity campaign, give his understanding of the sitution and where it might lead. He discusses how western media are distorting the reality and presenting a one-sided picture, the role of international solidarity, the lack of progress made by the opposition and where things might go from here.

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RV: Given this one-sidedness of the media and the whitewashing of the actions of the opposition, what is the role of international solidarity and in particular what is "Hands Off Venezuela" trying to do?

JM: "Hands Off Venezuela", from the very beginning, one of its aims was to break through the fog of media lies, distortions, half-truths and manipulations in relation to Venezuela. Just to give you an example, the other day there was an article headline1 on the BBC World News website that said: "Two more protesters killed in Venezuela. The deaths bring the number of anti-government protesters killed in the last seven weeks to 42."

And this is obviously not true. There have been people killed by government repression, but amongst these 42, over 50 now, these are not the majority. The majority of people have been killed as a direct result of political violence by the opposition, for example, by gunfire coming from opposition lines, or as an indirect result of that. So our task is to try to spread truthful information to labour movement activists, left-wing activists, student activists and so on, in order to counter the lies of the media. We should also try to hold the media accountable as much as we can. But the spreading of truthful information and a counter point of view is very important so that people can then make up their minds as to what is really going on in Venezuela. And this is one of the key tasks of the solidarity movement right now.